Ever since I got Heart Gold and Soul Silver, I had wondered what would happen if I let a Pokemon faint of poisoning while it was walking with you. I had never let it happen before, but I decided to try it one day with my hacked Riolu on Soul Silver. I saved right before, and figured I’d just reset it so I wouldn’t lose happiness with it, and I’d heal it once it reset. Plus, I was giving this game away eventually anyway; my close friend really wanted SS and didn’t mind a used one. I had gotten it at Gamestop and there was absolutely nothing weird about it (though believe me, I had hoped for something). In fact, this was the first odd thing that happened.
I had only just gotten to the Slowpoke Well, and had the Riolu out in front. Keep in mind, it wasn’t just because it was Riolu that I wanted to try it; its because he happened to get poisoned while he was in the front slot. I have nothing against Riolu, in fact I quite like the little guy.
So, once he got poisoned, I saved, and started walking. I had to walk back and forth a little so I wouldn’t get dragged into another battle. After a moment, I checked; 5 HP left. About 2-3 more screen flickers should do it. I walked…flicker. Flicker. Flicker. Then a text box.
“Help me…please…it hurts…”
Now, I had the text set on fast, and no matter if I held the A or B button, it wouldn’t move faster than the “slow” setting as it came across the screen. I hit A…and had to button mash for at least 30 seconds before the box finally left. I was worried that something was lagging the game, but everything looked okay. So I continued.
Flicker. Text box.
“Why won’t you help me…? I know you have ANTIDOTE…”
Now that was odd. As if the first one wasn’t. But I was starting to get excited; was this the creepy thing I had been waiting to happen in one of my games? Of course, I kept going.
Then right when the next flicker should have happened, another box came up. “Tybalt survived the poisoning. The poison faded away!” At first, I figured that was just what happened if you continued like that while the poisoned Pokemon was in the front. Rather disappointed, I started to walk back towards the Rockets…and I hit a wild encounter.
Now, I half expected what came next because I had a cheat on that would let me randomly encounter any of the available Pokemon in any encounter spot. But the Pokemon that showed up was a Ho-Oh…a Shiny Ho-Oh. Level 6, typical of Slowpoke Well. I didn’t have any kind of Shiny codes enabled. But I did have a full bag code.
Of course, instead of overexerting my poor Tybalt(Riolu) more, I immediately used a Masterball. I of course caught it, and rather than doing what I should have and healing Riolu first, I rushed to check Ho-Oh’s stats. It was normal for a level 6 I suppose, and its only attacks were Whirlwind and Weather Ball; again normal. Relaxed nature, and the cute little red star by its picture. I swapped Riolu for Ho-Oh in the front of the party and went on, thoroughly excited about my first shiny in SS being Ho-Oh.
I started to walk again, and suddenly heard the sound effect for the move Thief play. I blinked, confused, but started walking again, wondering if I was hearing things. Then the sound when an opponent heals their Pokemon with an item. Now I was curious; I checked my party and Tybalt was fully healed.
Only his name wasn’t Tybalt.
His name was now, exactly as I type it, “INFCTD”, and he had the Poison status symbol, but it was a bright lime green instead of the purple the icon usually is. Wide-eyed, I clicked on him to see a close up of his sprite. I really regretted doing that.
It was scary, to say the very least; its whole stance had changed, for one, to both feet planted on the ground, his back slumped over, paws hanging limp as well as his tail and ears. His eye whites had gone black, his irises the same green as the symbol, and the same green colored tears were coming out of his eyes…but it looked more like acid than tears. A foam was coming from his mouth, and his eyes, instead of looking the direction of where an opponent would be, were looking directly at me. And no matter which way I leaned, the piercing stare followed me, it seemed. A glutton for punishment, I assume, I clicked to see his moves. I should have expected what I saw. In order, Acid, Toxic, Payback, and Thief. The latter I presume he used to get my full restore, which I later discovered I was one short of.
I looked up at the sprite again, and I noticed…it was continually moving. Just a little, like it was breathing heavily. Now, I know for a fact that constant motion wasn’t implemented in these games yet; I’d heard of it in Black and White, but not here. That heavy breathing motion just drew the line, and I closed out of INFCTD’s menu.
Back at the Pokemon screen, Ho-Oh’s name had changed too, and I hadn’t named it. “TRAITOR”. Its HP was down to 1 suddenly, and it had the same Poisoned icon as Tybalt, in that sickening green…
I couldn’t stand it anymore, my finger flew to the power switch. I flicked it, and at first, nothing happened. Once more, and a textbox.
“I WILL GET YOU FOR THIS” in the slow letters again. One more flick and the system finally turned off.
I closed the DS, not realizing how heavy I myself had been breathing until then. I just set the DS down for a minute, rubbed my eyes, and tried to make sense of this as my first reaction. Second reaction, I opened up my laptop and typed this. I just hope I got everything accurately down. I’m going to turn it on again, just to see if everything’s back to normal…
Well, the game is on. INFCTD and TRAITOR are both gone without a trace. I checked my boxes and everything. On a whim, I happened to open up my character’s PC and check the mailbox. There was one unread message, from INFCTD.
“I WILL GET YOU FOR THIS.
YOU WILL PAY MORE
MANA.”
I should be glad that the horrid thing doesn’t know my real name. I’ve learned my lesson though…always heal your poisoned Pokemon if you’re able. If you’re not, I suppose they understand.
